CNN Central News & Networks / ITDC India ePress / ITDC News /Agencies/ Bhopal: Maharashtra MLC results held up on two seats, tight contest in Nagpur
Mumbai. The results of the Maharashtra Legislative Council elections for five graduate and teacher constituencies intensified political activity. Even about 30 hours after counting began, results on two seats had not been declared. Among them, the contest in the Nagpur graduate constituency drew the most attention, with a close fight between the BJP’s Sudhakar Kohale and sitting Congress Legislative Council member Abhijit Wanjari.
Results were declared for three seats during counting. BJP’s Kaustubh Gawde won from the Pune teacher constituency. Harshada Deshmukh-Jadhav of the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) won the Pune graduate seat. Kiran Sarnaik of the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena won from the Amravati teacher constituency. On the Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar graduate seat, Pratapsinh Patil of the Sharad Pawar faction was leading over Mahayuti-backed candidate Satish Chavan.
In Nagpur, the contest between the BJP and Congress remained neck and neck. In the Nagpur graduate constituency, the fight between the BJP’s Sudhakar Kohale and Congress’s Abhijit Wanjari was extremely close. In the initial rounds, the lead kept changing between the two candidates. Even after counting of second-preference votes began, no candidate had secured the quota of votes required for victory. As a result, the counting process was prolonged. The Nagpur result was being considered politically significant because it is the home region of Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Union minister Nitin Gadkari. Both leaders had campaigned in support of the BJP candidate.
Preference-based counting increased the time taken. Ballot papers were used in these elections instead of electronic voting machines. Voters marked their choices in order of preference. First-preference votes were counted first. When the prescribed quota was not met, candidates with fewer votes were eliminated and their votes were transferred according to the next preference marked on their ballot papers. This process led to a delay in declaring the results. Voting held on October 23 recorded an overall turnout of 72.96 percent across the five constituencies. Amid the prolonged counting, political parties continued to keep a close watch on the results in Nagpur and Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar.
Hashtags: #MumbaiCity #Bhopal #Maharashtra #MLC #Election #Seats #Results #Nagpur #MaharashtraMLCResultsHeld #महाराष्ट्र
